Latona launches a new site to find web designers to build out premium domain names.
Rick Latona has launched ResearchLabs.com, which is billed as “The Last Piece of the Domain Development Puzzle”.
The site pairs web designers and SEO experts with premium domain names. The Designers are paid a nominal base salary while the domain is developed and grows and then share in the profits in the long run.
Latona explains the need for the site on his blog:
Over the years I’ve lost a small fortune trying to mass develop domains as mini-sites and then lost another small fortune putting major sites on domains, only to ignore the sites later on.
Therein lies the problem. It’s difficult, to say the least, to get a lot of sites developed; primarily because you lose focus and attention.
Research Labs takes a very simple approach. If a web designer or seo expert wants to take a stab at developing a premium name, we give them the opportunity.
Current projects include RareCars.com, Webserver.com, and Rhodes.com.
Domainer Extraordinaire says
“None of it worked.”
The losing streak will continue.
Jon says
I think website design and SEO is the wrong starting point. I think the right person to run $500K+ domain is a really good sales person with good technical skills. Someone who can learn basic HTML in a week and basic SEO in another week.
The rubber meets the road is when you start dialing in or walking in for dollars, the way Castello brothers do. That is where you go from a site that makes $10K/year with adsense and take it to a site that makes $200K/year with direct advertisers.
lassy says
Jon, there are many ways to climb a mountain. I too don’t view this as the final chapter but it’s a move in the right direction. I dream of the days when hackathons are designed around domain names, with funding and term sheets ready for contest winners
don says
@jim
this would be a short sited assesment, their are a number of verticals where you can plug in a fairly viable monetization stream through a good affiliate program, the challenge that lies in developing and monetizing most every site is that it takes work every day, getting a site to stay ranked and make money only works when you keep working, there are not a whole lot of static sites that maintain rankings and profits year over year, I dont know if this is the solution, ive been critical of Ricks latest venture as I dont think the sites he is selling at six figures and above are fairly disclosing costs and work related…but that is a totallly different subject, I do feel that their remains an opportunity for partnerships for premium domains and web developers to work on projects under a win-win scenario, this has not been put in place in the domain world as ive seen or experienced.
Jim Holleran says
Didn’t Rick go back to school at Harvard? Whatever Rick does, good luck to him!
Mike says
Well, I wish him luck.
Maybe third time is a charm.
Someone is bound to crack the domain code one day. Everyone should keep trying.
Louise says
It’s me. I’m going to crack the domain code.
emma says
Folks. It will always come down to business idea. If you have a good idea and some good money you don’t need to be financed by or partner with anybody except when you need a synergy
Ryan says
Rick is to much of a hype machine, wish he would just leave the domain industry alone, instead of causing a 1 month rattle, than dissolving, and creating more hype.
RAYY.co says
“…The site pairs web designers and SEO experts with premium domain names. The Designers are paid a nominal base salary while the domain is developed and grows and then share in the profits in the long run…”
I don’t think it will work…
Why sharing?…The good web designers and seo experts will rather develop their own premium domains to generate their own profits…
I mean 100% profits without sharing with other partners…
Mark says
There are no short cuts to producing long term profitable sites.
The real skill set required is a deep knowledge of the subject the site is about and a willingness to stand up and shout about it (online and offline).
SEO and coding skills are useful, but not critical to the long term success of a domain / site as they can be bought in at appropriate times.